News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Overton County Board of Education considering how it could use former teachers as substitutes for the school system.
Board Member Melissa Savage told the School Board Tuesday night the district has no substitute teachers right now and there are a number of retired teachers who may be willing to help. Savage said the board’s current policies prevent a former teacher from subbing for extended leaves of absence if that teacher agreed to a contract buyout the district offered in the past.
“I know that it’s very hard to get a sub, and especially one that will cover a leave of absence,” Savage said. “I really feel like that’s something we probably need to look into. Because they do have to come in and they’re having to, they’re responsible for the discipline, the grades. They’re having to do ballgame duties, they’re having to do bus duties.”
Savage said the days of buyouts are over because of the teacher shortage and the board should work with any teachers that are available. Director of Schools Donnie Holman said he would talk to Board Attorney Chuck Hagel to see what the board’s options are.
“Many school systems did buyouts where they would offer a dollar amount for teachers if you retired this year and you’ve taught so many years and met this criteria, you would get a dollar amount,” Holman said. “In Overton County, it was $10,000. So when you retired, get $10,000 only on certain years, that wasn’t every year. But what it was, was we had a lot of teachers back then and we didn’t really need as many as we had so it was a way of saving money.”
Holman said the board has a policy that any substitute teacher covering a teacher’s leave for over twenty days goes from the substitute pay rate to full teacher pay if the teacher who is absent is out of sick days. Holman said the issue is that teachers who took a buyout agreed that they would only ever get substitute pay for any future work done in the district.
“That’s what we’re looking into is do we want to go back, and is that an option even, to go back and pay teacher pay to those that took the buyout,” Holman said.
Board Member Shirley Myers said teachers who took the buyout were restricted from working with the district again to prevent teachers from quitting and coming back the next year.
“Once you open that door and you say you can hire a teacher on a leave full-time that took the buyout, then why can’t you let another teacher come back that took the buyout and be rehired?” Myers said. “You can’t just crack that door.”
Board Member James Clouse said he believes the board looked into this matter in the past and found there was nothing it could do for the teachers that took the buyout.
In other business, the board approved the second reading of two policies from the Tennessee School Boards Association, one regarding physical assault leave and another addressing the code of conduct.
